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By Talking, Inmates and Victims Make Things ‘More Right’

Inmates applauded Janet Connors after she told the story of her son’s murder at the Restorative Justice Retreat at the state prison in Norfolk, Mass., last month.Credit
Charlie Mahoney for The New York Times

NORFOLK, Mass. — For many of his 15 years behind the soaring prison walls here, Muhammad Sahin managed to suppress thinking of his victims’ anguish — even that of the one who haunted him most, a toddler who peeked out from beneath her blankets the night he shot and killed her mother in a gang-ordered hit.

But he found it impossible to stop the tears as he sat in a circle together with Deborah Wornum, a woman whose son was murdered, and more than a dozen other men serving terms for homicide and other violent crimes. Each participant — victim and inmate — had a very different, personal story to share with the encounter groups that met here on a recent weekend in a process called restorative justice.

Ms. Wornum, 58, talked about the summer night three years ago when her son Aaron, a 25-year-old musician, walked out of their home with a cheerful “Be right back.” Forty minutes later the phone rang. It was a hospital; her son had been shot. He took his final breath in her arms.

“You touched me the most because it really made me understand what I put the family through,” said Mr. Sahin, 37, who was 22 when he killed the young mother. Taking a deep breath, broad shoulders bent forward, he continued. “I really don’t know how to overcome this or if I can overcome it. I’ve done a lot of bad stuff in my life. But I’ve reached a place where I’m not numb anymore.”

The unusual two-day gathering took place south of Boston at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk, one of the state’s oldest prisons as well as its largest, with about 1,500 inmates. Under the whirring of overhead fans in an auditorium of exposed red brick, it brought 150 inmates together with victims, judges, prosecutors and mediators. Gov. Deval Patrick attended briefly and met with a small group of those present.

Restorative justice, a process with roots in Native American and other indigenous cultures that resurfaced in the United States and abroad in the 1970s, has begun to make headway in some states, including Massachusetts, where legislation was introduced last year to promote its practice. It brings offenders and victims together voluntarily. Offenders take responsibility and acknowledge the impact their actions had on their victims and loved ones as well as their own families and neighborhoods. The victim is given a chance to ask questions of the offenders and share how their lives were affected by the crime. Advocates say it is key to rehabilitation and reduced recidivism.

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Muhammad Sahin spoke in a group discussion.Credit
Charlie Mahoney for The New York Times

“It tries to make things not right — but at least more right,” said Karen Lischinsky, a sociologist and volunteer coordinator of the prison’s restorative-justice group, which helped facilitate the gathering. “Nothing will bring back those killed.”

In September, Massachusetts will pilot a curriculum on restorative justice, modeled on a program called the Victim Offender Education Group, which was developed for California’s San Quentin State Prison. Meeting weekly for 34 weeks, participants will undergo a probing process aimed at acquiring accountability for the harm they caused.

Advocates for restorative justice say the concept is often misunderstood as being “soft” on crime. But in a prison setting that does not usually challenge offenders to take personal responsibility — and where some even convince themselves they did nothing wrong — the approach offers a marked contrast. In interviews with the incarcerated men and in the dialogue circles, a common theme was how their focus when they entered prison was on survival, not reflecting on the actions that had brought them here.

Norfolk’s restorative-justice group formed three years ago. After some tension among inmates in 2010, several “lifers” asked for assistance in forming the group in the hope of promoting a peaceful prison culture.

At the retreat, members of the group greeted visitors, introduced speakers, took part in public apologies and helped facilitate the circles. They spoke of signs of transformation inside the prison. Where four years ago no one knew what restorative justice was, now it is heard in conversations in the cellblocks and in the yard. Participants spoke of the importance of getting their message to reverberate, too, in their home neighborhoods, many of which are marred by violence and drugs.

One participant was David Myland. Facilitating a circle on forgiveness, the ruddy-faced 31-year-old from the Cape Cod area, with a stopwatch around his neck and a pen tucked behind an ear, could at first pass as a swim coach. He is serving time for second-degree murder during a home invasion when he was 20.

“I did some rotten things in prison and I’ve done some rotten things in the community, but the only reason I can do what I do now is because brothers and sisters have given me the opportunity to learn from them and go through a process where I can gain the insight I need to heal me. So I can go on and help others,” Mr. Myland said.

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Ms. Connors, an advocate of restorative justice, told inmates at the retreat: “I want you all to be part of the story.”Credit
Charlie Mahoney for The New York Times

Janet Connors, 64, a longtime community activist, was the first in Massachusetts to undergo a mediated dialogue, with two of the young men responsible for her son Joel’s stabbing death.

Speaking in a loud, firm voice, she looked out at her audience and told the prisoners that calling them monsters was a disservice to everyone: “Holding you in your humanity — it’s how we hold each other accountable.”

“We’re willing to risk a lot to open up the lines of communication,” she said. “To really figure out what to do to stop the nonsense — nonsense is too weak a word. To stop this horror that is taking people’s lives.”

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“I want you all to be part of the story,” she added. “We as survivors have to be included because there is no restorative justice without us.”

During a break for lunch, Ms. Connors checked in on Ms. Wornum.

“It was rough,” Ms. Wornum told her.

Ms. Connors smiled and confided: “Sometimes I say Joel is with me on this ride. Or I say, no, he is looking down on me saying, ‘What are you doing?’ Sometimes you just go back and forth.”

One inmate, who asked not to be identified to protect the privacy of his victims’ families, said of the interaction: “There’s a different level of connection — guys open up in the group, and you realize that deep down inside men are the same. And when you start to see that you understand yourself better.”

Asked what he would tell the teenager he was when he committed his crime, he said, choking up: “I’d probably just hug him. That’s it.”

A version of this article appears in print on July 6, 2014, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: By Talking, Inmates and Victims Make Things ‘More Right’. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe